rofi-games

Game launching plugin for rofi. Requires a good theme for the best results.

Installation

AUR

paru -S rofi-games

---

just

1. Clone repo:

   git clone https://github.com/Rolv-Apneseth/rofi-games.git

2. Use just to install (requires cargo and just)

   cd rofi-games && sudo just install

Uninstall with sudo just uninstall

---

Manual (not recommended)

git clone https://github.com/Rolv-Apneseth/rofi-games.git
cd rofi-games
cargo build --release --lib
sudo cp target/release/librofi_games.so /usr/lib/rofi/games.so

• If you are using the latest changes from the rofi repo (e.g. rofi-lbonn-wayland-git, rofi-git), then the build step needs to be preceded by RUSTFLAGS="--cfg rofi_next" for it to work
• The last cp command assumes that the rofi plugins directory is /usr/lib/rofi, which may not be the case for you. Use pkg-config --variable pluginsdir rofi to find the one for your system, though if there is no output from that command, you may need to just try /usr/lib64/rofi or /usr/lib/rofi (the install script in the justfile falls back to these in that order).

Theme

For the optimal experience, and to achieve what is shown in the demo image, use a good rofi theme. You can use one of the default themes provided with rofi-games but I recommend customising it at least a little bit (at least add the search icon). More information about themes here.

• To run with the default theme, the full command becomes:

  rofi -modi games -show games -theme games-default

• If you customised a theme and named the file games.rasi, it becomes:

  rofi -modi games -show games -theme games

Keybinds

Keybind	Default rofi keybind	Action
kb-accept-entry	Enter	Launch game
kb-accept-alt	Shift+Enter	Open game's root directory

• To change a rofi keybind, you can, for example, use -kb-accept-entry Ctrl+c

Currently supported launchers / game sources

Parsing of installed games has been extracted into a separate library: lib_game_detector

However, only games which have box art are valid for this launcher so not everything detected by that will be available for launch here. The following sources are currently supported:

• Steam
  • Steam shortcuts (non-Steam games) are also supported, just ensure the shortcuts has a box art image, using either the Steam UI or checking out the configuration section below.

Tip

To add box art for a shortcut using the Steam UI, navigate to the Steam library page (where the different games' box art is shown) and find the desired shortcut, right-click -> Manage -> Set custom artwork

• Heroic Games Launcher (all sources, including Amazon, should work)

  • The GOG source doesn't store the box art like the others, but the icons, so they won't look good

• Lutris

  • Must have box/cover art configured (or define a custom entry - see configuration section below). Some may already have cover art (like the Epic Games launcher) but I would recommend having a look over at SteamGridDB if you want to look for a better one. To set the cover art, simply right click the entry in the Lutris library, select "Configure", and click on the left-most image to select a new image file.

• Bottles

  • Only games which are in the Library and have a box/cover art (or have box art defined in a custom entry - see configuration section below) are displayed

• Instances from the following modded Minecraft launchers:

  1. Prism Launcher
  2. ATLauncher

Note

Modded Minecraft instances are not shown by default (as they don't have box art), so look at the configuration section below to see how to match an instance title to define box art for it

Configuration

Custom entries, for unsupported games (or technically anything you want), can be made by creating a config file at ~/.config/rofi-games/config.toml ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME is respected). Here is an example configuration:

# Directory to find box art in if an absolute path is not given
box_art_dir = "/home/rolv/.config/rofi-games/box-art"

# Define a new custom entry
[[entries]]
title = "GDLauncher"
launch_command = "gdlauncher"
# Looks for the image in the defined `box_art_dir`
path_box_art = "gdlauncher.png"
path_game_dir = "/opt/GDLauncher"

# Change box art for a title
[[entries]]
title = "Cyberpunk 2077"
path_box_art = "/home/rolv/images/cyberpunk.png"

# Define box art for a title e.g. Minecraft instances
# Modded Minecraft instances are always prefixed with "Minecraft: "
[[entries]]
title = "Minecraft: Fabulously Optimized"
path_box_art = "fabulously_optimized.png"

• The box_art_dir field is optional, but will be used if the path_box_art field of a given entry is not an absolute path.

• In the first entry, a custom entry is defined for GDLauncher. All fields must be defined, except for path_game_dir.

• In the second entry, a game already detected by lib_game_detector is matched by the title field. The custom entry is used to override certain fields for that entry, e.g. changing the box art image.

  • This can also be used to set box art images for the sources listed above that require a box art image defined in the launcher itself e.g. Lutris

Warning

If you have multiple games which match a given title (e.g. from multiple launchers), creating a custom entry will only override the fields on the first match, and other matches will be ignored. If you have multiple entries in your configuration file with the same title, they will override each other.

Tip

To run a script with spaces in the launch command, you will need to use \\ before any space characters, e.g. launch_command = "/home/user/GOG\\ Games/Stardew\\ Valley/start.sh". Other options can be passed in directly without escaping spaces.

Credit

The original idea belongs (as far as I know) to @ntcarlson, so big thanks to them. The original script I used to use for this was derived from this Reddit post they shared.

Converting to an actual rofi plugin is thanks to the author of rofi-mode.rs library, and thanks also to the author rofi-vscode-mode as that was very helpful as an example for rofi-mode usage and the PKGBUILD.